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Summer 2018

Meteorological summer (June-August) is drawing to a close and sure has been a memorable one.

Most extreme humidity on record Portland

Projected to be hottest on record Portland

These are the two topics that come to mind off the top of my head.

HUMIDITY
Lets talk about the humidity. If you think this has been a humid summer, you’re absolutely right. The highest recorded dew point on record at the Portland Jetport is 77°. On July 6th we reached 76°.

I saw Sanford hit 78° dew point twice this summer. Once on July 3rd, and the second just yesterday. It’s the highest dew point temperature I’ve ever seen in Maine.
We’ve had more hours with a 70 degree dew point or higher this summer than any other summer in the past 45 years. It’s not even close either. As of today, Portland is sitting around 375 hours with a dew point 70°or higher with the next closest 1988 just over 200 hours.

TEMPERATURE
There are still a few days of data left in the month, but it’s looking like Meteorological summer 2018 will go into the books hottest on record in Portland. 2018 is neck and neck for the #1 spot with 2016.

Night time lows were warm as well. This makes sense given the high humidity stats. Air temperature can’t be cooler than the dew point. We’ve had the most days on record with a temperature of 70 degrees or higher for a low.

Portland hit 93 degrees 4 times this summer. The city had a high of 90 or hotter 7 times this year (one in May). We average 3.9 days of 90 degrees or more. Assuming Portland doesn’t reach 90 again, 2018 will be in a 6 way tie for 6th most 90 degree days. Here’s the top 5.

You’d think warmer times would mean more heat waves( 90 degrees or higher for 3 days in a row). My research found the opposite which is interesting.

PRECIPITATION

It was looking like Maine was slowly slipping into drought early this summer. Mother nature has a way of equaling things out though. The rain came in August and we’re ending summer around normal. Normal for the summer months is 10.54″. As of today 10.72″ fell in the bucket at the Jetport.

The first part of fall should pick up where summer left off. I see a continuation of warmer than normal temperatures in the coming months. Here’s what NOAA is thinking (September, October, November).

Stay tuned to the winter forecast coming in October. Like I mentioned earlier, mother nature has a subtle way of equaling things out.

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